Sonic the Hedgehog: Alternate History
This is an alternate history if Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the original 1970's classic arcade character and also came from a different country than in "canon" history. Everything in this article is fully hypothetical, and and also goes slightly before Sonic's creation. Without further Adue, let us begin: Pre-Sonic Dates 1967 - 'Norwegian company ''Solarix ''is formed by close friends Chris Steen, Don Bjørkås & Thom Aleksandersen in Trondheim, Norway. It is a simple home electronics company, and while not the most popular one, it manages to be popular in the home country. '''1969 - ' Solarix employee Ingolv Skjerping comes up with the idea to adopt a mascot for the company. The three founders agree to it and the company has a short contest to decide a mascot for their electronics. Various animals such as a fox, a wolf, a rabbit, a porcupine, a moose, a kangaroo, a weasel, an echidna, a fat man, an armadillo and a hedgehog are all considered. It's reported that Chris Steen designed the Hedgehog character with help from Don's then-young daughter Mila. Ingolv designed the Armadillo. The rest's designers are unknown '1970 - ', The hedgehog is officially decided as the mascot of the company, and begins appearing on all of their following electronics. 'October, 1978 -' With the success of Space Invaders in Japan, Solarix begins plans to develop their own arcade game, turning from an electronic company rather than just electronics. They decide to use their hedgehog mascot as the main character. 1980's - The Classic Age '''December 28, 1980 - After being developed since late 1978, the first Sonic game, an arcade game Solarix Presents: Sonic the Hedgehog (mostly just called Sonic the Hedgehog ) is released in Norway. It is later released through-out Europe and in North America & Asia when it becomes a major hit in Norway. It follows Sonic, the mascot, fighting Dr. Robotnik and Mecha Sonic. November 23, 1981 - ' Following the success of Donkey Kong, Solarix releases a new arcade game, called ''Dr. Robotnik's Mean Dance Machine, which is a game centering around Sonic having to beat Robotnik and Mecha Sonic through a button-pressing and timing adventure (press the buttons and move the stick at the right time). It was not as successful as the first game or rival game Donkey Kong, but was still good enough to be a hit. 'June 17, 1982 - ' Solarix releases Sonic vs Mecha Sonic arcade game released. It is a game where one is playing as Sonic in a fighting game against Mecha Sonic. Though the other control stick side of the cabinet plays as Mecha Sonic against Sonic. It was a big competitor against Donkey Kong's success. '''July, 1983 - ''DIC Entertainment gains permission to make a Sonic cartoon show, ''Super Sonic Adventures, ''on Scandinavian & American/Canadian television. The show follows Sonic in his various adventures to stop Dr. Robotnik & Mecha Sonic's various evil plans while protecting an unspecified city and it's Mayor aswell as said Mayor's spoiled and bratty daughter Brittany. He also has a random sidekick every episode. The show was very successful at the time of it's first airing. '''General 1983 - '''Due to the Video Game crash at the time, Solarix did not focus on making Sonic games, instead putting their focus into the above mentioned television series. '''October, 1985 - 'Super Sonic Adventures ''airs it's series finale and stops airing due to low ratings at the end of it's run. '''December 18, 1985 - '''Sonic appears in a cameo in a car racing game that Solarix released for the NES. Rather than make new Sonic games, Solarix decides to give him cameos here and there as they focus on making other franchises on the NES and Master System. '''January 4, 1986 -' A short Sonic the hedgehog comic series begins publication in Nintendo Power magazine when Solarix decides to only publish on the NES. May 8, 1986 - ''' Thom Aleksandersen dies in a car accident on the way to work that morning, during his funeral service on '''May 12, 1986, there was a mourning Sonic statue present. July 21, 1986 - ' Sonic makes a cameo in a secret room in a Solarix Sci-fi Adventure game released on the NES that year. Alongside Mecha Sonic and Dr. Robotnik, aswell. '''Feburary, 1987 - ' The Nintendo Power Sonic comic series ceases publication. 'March, 1987 - ' Solarix begins plans to develop not only their own console, but make a theatrical movie release for Sonic aswell. '''October 28, 1987 - '''Sonic makes a cameo in the second game of Solarix's Sci-fi Adventure series on the NES, once more on a secret visitable planet in the game. '''November 13, 1988 - '''Sonic makes his final NES appearance when he appears in ''Solarix All-Stars Battle Royale ''which is an NES fighting game featuring characters from all of Solarix's major 1980's franchises. Sonic is a secret unlockable character in the game, unlocked by inputting a secret code from the instruction manual (or Nintendo Power magazine). Mecha Sonic and Dr. Robotnik also appear in the game. '''Feburary, 1989 - '''Tensions between Nintendo and Solarix begin growing as Solarix's secret projects become a bit more open. This is mainly subtly shown through word usage in Nintendo Power magazine, how it begins simply glancing over anything to do with Solarix and their games. '''December 15, 1989 - '''On the same day as Nintendo's The Wizard has it's release to theaters, Solarix not only releases the 16-bit console the ''Delta ''but also releases ''Sonic Live ''into theaters, advertising the next Sonic game in it by having the plot be a young boy buying a Delta from a yard sale that is cursed by the seller, an eldery woman (who is implied to be a witch) and then later being sucked into the upcoming Sonic game that he got with it, being kidnapped by Robotnik, and then Sonic going on an adventure to save him. It was much more successful than it's rival film, and also more praised by critics. Those at the premiere release would get a free early copy of the upcoming Sonic title. '''December 18, 1989 - '''The ''Sonic Team ''branch of Solarix corporations is officially made, headed by Chris Steen himself. Their primary focus is Sonic titles, so naturally they handle the final touches to the latest Sonic title before it could be released. '''December 20, 1989 - ''Fleetway Publications, a british comic company, begins publication of an official Sonic the Hedgehog themed comic series, furthering anticipation for the upcoming game in the series. 1990's - The Retro Age '''January 1, 1990 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog ''is finally released on Solarix's Delta console after so many weeks of anticipation. It was a 16-bit speed based platforming game, featuring Sonic fighting Dr. Robotnik boss fights at the end of every level and fighting the Doc's "Badnik" army during the levels which are 3 acts each. There is also a secret Mecha Sonic boss fight in the Labyrinth Zone level on Act 3, if one keeps riding down the seemingly endless waterfalls rather than jump to the button for the Robotnik chase fight of the level. Mecha Sonic retains his 1980's design for this game. '''March 28, 1990 - '''Solarix releases a new portable system known as the ''Mini-Delta ''and releases a port of Sonic the Hedgehog as the first game for it. '''November 24, 1991 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ''is released on the Delta, and becomes one of the highest selling games on the console. It introduces Sonic's official sidekick character, the two-tailed fox Miles "Tails" Prower who has the ability to fly. It also introduces a new robot version of Sonic, known as Silver Sonic, aswell. The plot is Sonic and Tails meeting eachother and teaming up to bring down Dr. Robotnik's new massive space station, the Death Egg. After they do so though, if one got all seven Chaos Emeralds (collectable gems that can transform Sonic into a golden Super form of himself), the true ending reveals Silver Sonic kidnaps Tails for robotnik, setting the story up for the next game in the series. Tails is a playable character in the game too, making the multi-player experience fun for many players. '''December 2, 1991 - '''A port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released on the Mini-Delta. '''Feburary 25, 1992 - '''Solarix relases the ''Delta CD ''add-on for the Delta console, an add-on that always CD based games to be played on the system. They also re-released Sonic the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the CD unit aswell, the main difference being the music being more of a CD quality. '''April, 1992 - '''Sega, a long-time rival of Solarix, goes bankrupt due to lack of sales and as such, many of it's former employees end up flocking to both Nintendo and Solarix. Solarix manages to adopt a few of Sega's former franchises from these new employees such as ''Alex Kidd, Ecco the Dolphin,' Shinobi, Phantasy Star ''and the in-planning Virtua Fighter''. May, 1992 - ''Solarix of America and ''Solarix of Japan ''divisions are both founded. '''September 23, 1992 - 'Sonic CD ''is released on the Delta CD. It introduces Amy Rose Hedgehog, Sonic's obsessive fan-girl "love interest", the new robotic doppleganger Metal Sonic and also is critically acclaimed as the best title of the Delta CD. The plot involves Robotnik discovering and taking over the legendary Miracle Planet, and then sending Metal Sonic to kidnap Amy, who he believes is Sonic's girlfriend (she really isn't), though this gets Sonic involved. Sonic uses time travel to stop Robotnik's take-over of Miracle Planet, defeat Metal Sonic, save Amy, and gather the seven Time Stones introduced for this game. If you destroy all the robot generators in each Level/Zone, AND get all the time stones, you get a Zone 4 of the final Level -Metallic Madness-, in which you chase Metal Sonic to a chamber where he attaches himself to a large dragon-and-Sonic themed badnik in a final boss fight, one of the hardest bosses in gaming history, and once defeated Tails is saved (he was the badnik's power source), and Sonic gets both him and Amy off of the exploding Robotnik base, saving Miracle Planet too. '''September 30, 1992 - 'Solarix 101 ''magazines begin publications, a counterpart of Nintendo Power magazines. '''November 11, 1992 - 'Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio ''is released on Delta and Delta CD. It feaures Sonic and Tails in the game, even though it is a mere playable game and they are not actually important to the game itself. '''October 7, 1992 - '''Sonic CD is ported onto the basic Delta and ''Sonic Labyrinth ''is released on the Mini-Delta. '''May, 1993 - 'Archie Comics ''gains permission to begin publishing their own American Sonic the Hedgehog comics, despite the Fleetway comics still going on at this time. '''June 20, 1993 - 'SolarixSonic the Hedgehog ''is released to Arcades. It feaures Sonic, a red/black armadillo named Mighty, and a yellow flying squirrel teaming up against Robotnik. Not very popular at the time of it's release. '''August 3, 1993 - '''Don Bjørkås retires and is replaced as CEO of Solarix by his daughter, Mila Bjørkås-Fagernes. '''August 20, 1993 - 'Sonic Drift, ''a kart racing game, is released on the Mini-Delta. '''September 6, 1993 - '''DIC Entertainment ''gets permission to produce & start airing a second Sonic themed animated series, ''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ''on American/Canadian & Scandinavian television. This series had Sonic and Tails have various wacky adventures in stopping the various wacky schemes of Dr. Robotnik, his robot henchmen Scratch (a tall rooster themed robot) and grounder (a dim-witted drill-tank like robot) aswell as a red monkey themed robot named Coconuts. The show ran for 65 episodes and ended it's run on '''December 3 '', 1993. September 18, 1993 - ''DIC Entertainment gets permission to produce & air a thrid animated Sonic show on America/Canadian & Scandinavian television, this time it's simply called ''Sonic the Hedgehog. ''Though the fans commonly abbreviate it as ''Sonic SatAM ''or just ''SatAM. November 15, 1993 - ''Sonic Spinball is released on the Delta and Delta CD.It is a pinball themed game that has references to SatAM and a plotline involving Robotnik creating a base out of a volcano, which obviously Sonic goes in and destroys to save the world. '''November 24, 1993 - '''Sonic becomes the first video game character to have a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgivings Day Parade. '''November 30, 1993 - 'Sonic Chaos ''is released on the Mini-Delta. Is a simple Sonic & Tails vs. Robotnik game. '''December 6, 1993 - 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ''airs it's final episode. Production of next Sonic game begins around this time. '''January 9, 1994 - 'Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine ''is released on the Delta and Delta CD. It is a tetris-like puzzle game with a Dr. Robotnik and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog theme to it. '''June, 1994 - '''Talk of making a 3D console for next year is spread through-out Solarix HQ, and also production of the next big Sonic game is underway, with a plan of having this one be perhaps the most ambitious title yet. It even had to be held back a few months for production to be just right. '''October 18. 1994 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ''is released for both the Delta and the Delta CD. It introduces Knuckles the Echidna, gaurdian of the Master Emerald and Angel Island, a new location, and also has the anticipated return of Mecha Sonic who is also redesigned from his last appearance. The plot is that Sonic and Tails travel to Angel Island, where the Death Egg crashed into, and encounter Knuckles who had been tricked by Robotnik to believe that Sonic was actually the villain. As such, Knuckles interferes with Sonic and Tail's progress through-out the game. However, in the second half of the plot, Robotnik betrays Knuckles, who then begins helping Sonic and Tails. Mecha Sonic also briefly fights the famous duo aswell, but fails and as such they enter the repaired Death Egg and once more defeat Robotnik and destroy the Death Egg once and for all. In Kuckles' plotline, a lone badnik, an Egg Robo, acts as his own personal Robotnik, working for Mecha Sonic. In the end, the Egg Robo is betrayed by Mecha Sonic and sent flying off the island, while Mecha chooses to fight Knuckles alone. In the end Knuckles defeats him and sends him falling off the island too to an unknown fate at the time. The game's multi-player features Amy and Metal Sonic as bonus playable characters. '''November 28, 1994 - 'Sonic Triple Trouble ''is released on the Mini-Delta. The game has a plotline of Sonic and Tails going on once more, a quest to stop Robotnik from world domination and recapture the Chaos Emeralds they lost inbetwen TT and Sonic 3. Robotnik has also hired a treasure huner, Knack the Weasel, to aid him, and has Knuckles on his side again. However, in the end of the game, Knack bails after the last chaos emerald is gathered and "Knuckles" is revealed to be a robot named Metal Knuckles instead. Metal Sonic is also a boss in the near end of the game too. '''Feburary 19, 1995 - 'Sonic Drift 2 ''released on Mini-Delta, bringing in Knuckles, Metal Sonic, Knack and Metal Knuckles as playable characters, as opposed to just Amy, Tails, Sonic and Robotnik as in the original. '''April 1, 1995 - 'Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) ''stops airing in the US & Canada, though still continues airing in Norway, Sweden and Finland, due to low ratings in North America, though higher ratings in Scandinavia. '''April 28, 1995 - 'Tails' Skypatrol ''is released on the Mini-Delta in Europe, though is never released in Japan or North America. It is a game centered around Tails flying and fighting off an evil witch named Wendy Witchcart and her droogs, who claim Tails' island as their own and threaten to turn all the people who live there into crystals. Naturally, Tails rebels and defeats her. Has a debated place in the Sonic in-universe timeline. '''May 30, 1995 - 'Knuckles' Chaotix ''is released on the Delta and Delta CD. The game is about Knuckles and a group called the Chaotix in the carnival Eggman built in Sonic 3 fight off Egg Robo and Metal Knuckles who return to the place in an attempt to once more take over the island. Knuckles and the Chaotix use seven mysterious "Chaos Rings" to put a stop to the two robots' evil plans. The game also has appearances from Sonic & Tails at the credits sequence, Amy Rose in the Sound Test. '''August 31,' 1995 - Tails and the Music Maker ''is released on the Delta. It is a music making educational game featuring Tails. '''September 11, 1995 - 'Tails' Adventure ''is released on the Mini-Delta. It is a game featuring Tails finding a deserted island and relaxing on it until the grand ku-ku army, an all-bird organization, attacks. Tails has to use his bare wit and alot of upgrades in this RPG-esque portable adventure. '''November 9, 1995 - '''The compilation game ''Sonic Classics 4 in 1 ''is released for the PC. It features Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine aswell as unlockable bonus Solarix Presents: Sonic the Hedgehog original arcade game. '''January 7, 1996 - 'Sonic 3D Blast, ''a game announced in Solarix 101 in 1995, is cancelled when Solarix announces their upcoming 3D console and Sonic Team focuses on developing for that instead. '''May 31, 1996 - '''A two-part Sonic OVA series airs in Japan, originally an idea for an anime series, it only aired as a two episode long OVA series. For Europe and North America it was turned into a Direct-to-Video movie called ''Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. ''In Scandinavia the movie did air on television, though. '''August 3, 1996' '- 'Sonic Blast, ''an isometric portable game, is released on the Mini-Delta, and is the last Retro Age Portable Sonic game. It is about Sonic & Knuckles fighting against Dr. Robotnik's evil plans together as the main playable characters. The game attempts a semi-3D look with isometric graphics. '''September 11, 1996 - '''The Solarix ''Saturn ''is released as Solarix's first 3D console, and ''Sonic X-Treme, ''the long-awaited first 3D title of the series. X-Treme featured the ability to play as either Metal Sonic or Sonic, and they both had different storylines. In Sonic's storyline, he teamed up with new character Tiara Boobowski, her father Gazebo Boobowski, and of course Tails in an attempt to stop Dr. Robotnik from gathering Gazebo's invention, the seven Chaos Rings, and using them to bring the Chaos Emeralds to him and rule the world. Naturally, they succeed. Metal Sonic's storyline is more mission based and focuses on him ending a civil war within Robotnik's empire, with Egg Robo ading him. Naturally, he too succeeds in his mission. Sonic-Xtreme also has a multiplayer featuring a Metal Tails, Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, Knuckles, Tails, Sonic and Tiara as playable characters. Amy appears in the sound test. '''November 27, 1996 - 'Sonic's Schoolhouse, ''an educational game for young children, is released on the Saturn and on the PC. It's a simple education game featuring Sonic, Dr. Robotnik, and a few badniks. The player plays as one of several random animals. '''December 20, 1996 - 'Sonic the Fighters ''is released to arcades. It is an arcade fighting game featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Knack, new characters Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite Duck all as playable characters. Honey the Cat appears as a scrapped but still in the data character and Dr. Robotnik & Metal Sonic are unplayable characters. '''March 29, 1997 - '''Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) ends it's Scandinavian run, meaning the show is officially over at this point. The reason for ending was due to both low ratings and also due to the writers coming up with a definite conclusion to the series. '''June 20, 1997 - 'Sonic Jam, ''another compilation game, is released on the Saturn. The game features Sonic the Hedgehog (1990), Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles' Chaotix and also the original arcade titles as unlockable titles: Solarix Presents: Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Dance Machine and Sonic vs Mecha Sonic. It also featured a 3D world where one played as Sonic in a "hub" world, could visit buildings to view concept art, a timeline covering all of the previous game releases, music from all the games available, watch trailers and commercials for the games and commercials in general, and even view the original pilot episode of the SatAM TV series. Sonic Jam also offers the option of playing the game on different difficulty settings, and also has a mission mode within the main hub-world. '''December 11, 1997 - 'Sonic R ''is released on the Saturn. The game is a foot racing game featuring several of the Sonic characters. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Metal Sonic are the starting characters. Dr. Robotnik, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Egg Robo, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Mighty and Tiara are all unlockable characters. Even though the game is foot-racing, each character has their own stats, their own special attacks/abilities, and of course there are various pick-ups. There are also a total of twenty-five different race courses to choose from to race on. '''January 16, 1998 - ' Mila Bjørkås-Fagernes steps down as CEO to form Solarix of Canada division, and is replaced as CEO by Greis Hol, who is the first CEO of Solarix not from Norway, but instead from Sweden. November 30, 1998 - ''Sonic Saturn is released for the Saturn. It is the final new game in the Retro Age and the plot involves Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Knuckles teaming up to fight the Dr. Robotnik, who has constructed a larger-than-life Death Egg Model: the Death Egg-Saturn. They also fight against his team of metals (Metal Sonic, Metal Mighty, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Egg Robo, Metal Amy, Metal Vector, Metal Charmy, Metal Espio, Metal Tiara, Metal Gazebo and even Metal Sally ). The game has two different sets of levels, one for Sonic & Tails, the other for Knuckles & Mighty. There is also of course the deal of getting all seven chaos emeralds, and Dr. Robotnik's secret final weapon, the massive Metallic Tails. '''December, 1998 - '''Production of another theatrical Sonic film begins. This time the film will be fully done in traditional animation, however. '''Feburary 15,1999 - 'Sonic the Fighters: Saturn Edition ''(A port of Sonic the Fighters) is released on the Saturn. The port adds Metal Sonic, Egg Robo, Metal Knuckles and Dr. Robotnik to the playable roster and adds alternate costumes and an ability to change stats of characters with a level-up system. It is the final general game in the Retro Age. Honey is also unlockable, with the input of a super-secret code only stated in Solarix 101 magazine (and the internet). '''August 30, 1999 - 'DIC Entertainment ''gains permission to produce and air another animated Sonic series on Scandinavian, British, French & Canadian/American television, called ''Sonic Underground. ''The show is about Sonic having a brother named Sonia and a brother named Manic, and they are royalty with a mother named Queen Aleena. Their kingdom had been taken over by Robotnik who turned it into a cruel and dark dictatorship, and has two bouny hunters named Sleet and Dingo working for him. They are on a journey to find their mother so they can restore the world to it's original beauty and defeat Robotnik. On the way, they meet various characters. '''December 31, 1999 - '''Sonic the Hedgehog: Milenium ''is released to international theaters. It is a fully animated feature, and the plot involes Dr. Robotnik trying to roboticize the entire world at once with his new airship, the Egg Dreadnaught. As Sonic journeys through the world, assembling a large team of himself, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Espio, Mighty, Charmy, Vector and even Tiara and Gazebo all against the threat of Robotnik, his main robot team of Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles and Metal Tails, his assistant Egg Robo, and his massive Badnik army. In the end, once gathering the seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic goes super, destroys Robotnik's massive Egg Walker machine, and also destroys the Egg Dreadnaught just before it roboticized the world. 2000's & 2010's - The Modern Age '''January, 2000 - '''The Y2K scare incident and Solarix beginning Production on their next 3D console. '''Feburary 21, 2000 - '''Greis Hol is arrested and charged with murdering his wife and children, aswell as kidnapping his own neice & nephew and holding them hostage in his attic, and as such he is fired from his job once he is found guilty. His replacement is Isaac Drivenes.